German vocabulary related to Warner Bros. cartoon and comic book characters
The names and characters listed in this glossary are copyrights or trademarks of Warner Brothers/Time Warner. This English-German glossary is for educational purposes only and has no official connection with Warner Bros. or the Looney Tunes cartoons.
Unlike the Disney cartoon characters, most of the Warner Brothers figures have kept their original English names in German. There are several possible reasons for this. First, the Warner/Looney Tunes cartoon characters were introduced to German audiences later and never became as popular in German-speaking countries as their Disney counterparts. While Micky Maus and Donald Duck appeared in Disney German-language comic books as early as the 1930s, Warner cartoon characters, such as Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry, were known primarily as the stars of Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies (an obvious imitation of Disney's "Silly Symphonies") animated films (Trickfilme). Most of the Warner cartoon characters were introduced to German audiences on TV and in movies after World War II. But today Warner Brothers has a large Hollywood-themed amusement park near Bottrop, Germany called Warner Brothers Movie World. It is part of the Six Flags chain, which has another European WBMW park in Madrid.
See the glossary below for Looney Tunes characters with German names. A few sometimes appear both with a German name here and an English name there. The following Warner Bros./Looney Tunes characters have generally kept their English names in German: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian ("Marvin der Marsbewohner" would be a bit awkward), Petunia Pig, the Roadrunner (Biep! Biep!), Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester, Tom and Jerry ("Tom und Jerry"), Tweety, and Yosemite Sam. Characters with German names:
Pepe Le Pew Pepe das Stinktier ("Pepe the Skunk")
Porky Pig Schweinchen Dick ("piggy fat")
Porky's German name was used primarily for German TV
Tasmanian Devil der Tasmanische Teufel
Wiley Coyote Willi Koyote
Looney Tunes on the Web
There is an excellent German Web site, Trickfilmwelt.de, devoted to information about the Looney Tunes animated cartoon and characters, with their German titles. (See link below.) The site has German descriptions of each Looney Tunes figure along with the history of characters and cartoon series ("Tom und Jerry" or "Sylvester und Tweety"). Trickfilmwelt also has charts detailing the English and German titles of Looney Tunes cartoons released in German. Many of the Warner cartoons, particularly on German TV, have aired in English with German subtitles. Among other things, you can learn what Bugs Bunny's famous tag line sounds like in German: "Ähh - is was, Doc?"
Another good German source is Gerd Syllwasschy's BarksBase named for Carl Barks (1901-2000), the talented creator of many Disney cartoon characters, including Scrooge McDuck ("Dagobert Duck") and Gyro Gearloose ("Daniel Düsentrieb"). Some MGM and Universal cartoon figures, such as Droopy ("Drops) and Woody Woodpecker, are also listed at the BarksBase site.
RELATED > Disney Cartoon Characters Glossary
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